Sig Christenson is a veteran military reporter who has made nine trips to the war zone. He writes regularly for Hearst about service members, veterans and heroes, among other topics. He is also the co-founder and former president of Military Reporters and Editors, founded in 2002.

Basic Training

07/27/2013

A jury Friday night found an Air Force basic training instructor not guilty of rape.

Tech. Sgt. Marc Gayden was charged with rape, forcible sodomy and trying to develop an illicit personal relationship with a woman while he was her instructor at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland nearly three years ago.

Earlier in the day, fellow trainers testified that Gayden was a trusted leader.

“That man is probably the epitome of what an instructor should be,” said Master Sgt. Greg Pendleton, a 19-year Air Force veteran.

Much of the questioning during the four-day trial centered on whether the woman, identified as Airman 1, could have been alone in a dorm on Dec. 24, 2010, the day of the alleged attack, and if Gayden missed physical training sessions. Testimony has conflicted on the issues.

07/25/2013

The star witness and accuser against an Air Force basic training instructor charged with rape said his misconduct began with a kiss she didn't see coming.

Tech. Sgt. Marc Gayden is charged with rape, forcible sodomy and trying to develop an illicit personal relationship with the woman while he was her basic training instructor at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. He faces life in prison if convicted.

Gayden is the 25th instructor to go on trial in a scandal that so far has seen 33 trainers fall under investigation for misconduct with 67 recruits and technical school students.

Prosecutors say Gayden raped the woman and tried to force her to perform oral sex.

The witness identified as Airman 1 took the stand for around three hours Thursday to testify against Gayden. She said she was standing duty as a dorm guard on the night of the incident, when Gayden left an office inside her living quarters.

“He came up to me and tried to hug me, and I turned my head,” she said.

Houston defense attorney Guy Womack spent much of the morning trying to debunk her testimony.

The case hinges on her believability. She is the sole witness against Gayden, an 11-year Air Force veteran the defense says was highly regarded.

As the morning unfolded, she maintained her military bearing, never becoming emotional as some victims have over the last 15 months.

07/24/2013

An Air Force basic training instructor on trial for raping a recruit won't be allowed to bring witnesses to the stand who would testify that the chief accuser in the case lied about him.

Houston attorney Guy Womack wanted the judge, Lt. Col. Grant Kratz, to let him call several former recruits to testify the woman made up claims that Tech. Sgt. Marc Gayden showed favors to them during basic training.

Prosecutors argued that the allegation was irrelevant because Gayden faces life in prison for rape and forcible sodomy, and was not charged with misconduct associated with favoritism. Womack, however, said the testimony was a crucial cog in the defense's strategy.

“Our defense is she lied, period,” he told the judge Wednesday.

An 11-year Air Force veteran, Gayden is the 25th basic training instructor to be tried in a sex scandal at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland that is the worst in the service's history. So far, 33 instructors have been investigated for misconduct with 67 recruits and technical school students.

Jury selection was to begin this morning for Gayden, who has asked that a panel of officers and NCOs hear his case. He took the stand Tuesday as Womack, who defended Abu Ghraib torturer Cpl. Charles Graner, sought to admit an email into evidence.

07/23/2013

A San Antonio NCO charged with raping a recruit in basic training first learned he might be in trouble when the ex-trainee sent him an email.

Tech. Sgt. Marc Gayden said Monday he opened the message Oct. 18, 2012 after arriving at work. A woman identified as Airman 1 told Gayden that she had read a newspaper story about the sex scandal at Joint Base San Antonio.

“It made me think of what you did to me in your office,” she wrote him. “I'm thinking of reporting it.”

Stunned, Gayden said his heart raced and he breathed heavily while pondering the message, sent to him as part of a probe that had been launched by the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations.

Gayden, an 11-year Air Force veteran, later was charged with forcible rape, forcible sodomy and trying to develop a personal relationship with a recruit. The 25th basic training instructor to be tried in the Lackland scandal, he could get life in prison if convicted this week.

Two-dozen airmen have gone to trial since April 2012. One of the latest was Senior Airman Andrew Lira, a seven-year veteran who was given six months in jail, 30 days' hard labor, $1,200 in forfeitures and reduction to the lowest rank for seeking sex with eight enlistees.

06/28/2013

The two-year sentence handed to Senior Airman Christopher Oliver on
Wednesday marks what I believe is the 22nd completed trial in the
ongoing scandal among basic training instructors at Joint Base San
Antonio-Lackland.

It’s a good place to pick up the interview I did last week with the
Air Force chief of staff, Gen. Mark Welsh III. He talks about core
values – the ideals that all airmen are supposed to live by but, in the
case of as many as 33 Lackland military training instructors, failed to
do.

Every MTI and recruit sees the values in signs posted on the base.
They are “integrity,” “service before self” and “excellence in all we
do,” and were crafted by another Air Force chief, the now-retired Gen.
Ronald Fogleman.

In his “Little Blue Book,” a manual on core values he ordered to be
given to young airmen, Fogleman defined integrity as “the inner voice;
the voice of self-control; the basis for the trust imperative in today’s
military.”

“The Air Force talks about this a lot,” Welsh said in the interview.
“This is what our core values are all about. The idea of integrity,
service and excellence and with respect kind of woven into all three of
those is, again, it’s foundational to what we want to be as a service.

“We talk about it all the time. What we’re doing right now is looking
at – is there a different way as people come into the Air Force to
ensure that the people we bring on, whether they’re officers or NCOs or
civilians, understand very clearly the expectation and standards of
behavior – both self-behavior and behavior toward others – that live in
our service. And then make sure they understand the reasons behind those
expectations and why they’re so important to accomplishing our mission,
which is the bottom line for us.

“But we know if we don’t take great care, better care constantly of
our people, that we won’t be as good at getting that mission done as we
need to be, and the mission is to fight and win our nation’s wars. It’s a
pretty significant mission, and we’ve got to be good at this, which
means we have to have the best people possible, which means we have to
take better care of them than anyone else does, in my opinion.”

Senior Airman Andrew Lira
might have been with dozens of newly minted airmen early Friday as they
marched in a graduation ceremony led by the roll of a recruit band's
snare drum, but he was in a courtroom just off the parade field instead.

He
was awaiting sentencing for having sought illicit relationships with
eight trainees at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, one of them a recruit
he seduced while she was still in basic training.

Just after noon, Lira stood before a judge, Col. Donald Eller Jr., and was sentenced to six months in jail, 30 days' hard labor, $1,200 in forfeitures and reduction to the lowest rank.

The
maximum sentence was one year, and Eller spared him a bad-conduct
discharge. If all goes well, Lira, 28, will earn five days a month for
good behavior, meaning he'll be out after Thanksgiving.

A seven-year veteran, Lira was the 23rd instructor tried in the Air Force's
worst sex scandal. All but one has been convicted since the first trial
in April 2011. The Air Force has investigated 33 instructors for
misconduct with 67 recruits and technical school students.

Lira was honored as Airman of the Quarter and Airman of the Year in his basic training squadron, said his lawyer, Capt. Meredith Steer.
The long hours in his highly competitive unit led to Lira spending much
more time with his trainees than his own family, the lawyer added.

Lira's
downfall started when he talked with a recruit in his flight who was
being transferred because of an injured ankle. The recruit, identified
as Airman 1, said she was surprised when Lira, who yelled at recruits in
her all-female flight, made a pass at her.

“'You're too good-looking for him,'” she said Lira told her while looking a picture of her and her ex-boyfriend.

Not
long after that, they kissed in his flight office before she boarded a
bus to her new unit. They had sex in a dorm shower, and met after her
discharge for days at a local hotel.

Lira met all the women while
they were in basic training flights he led, but had sex only with Airman
1. He swapped Facebook messages with the others, one of whom received a
photo of his private parts.

06/27/2013

A seven-year Air Force
veteran pleaded guilty Thursday to having sex with a basic training
recruit while she recovered from a minor injury three years ago.

Senior Airman Andrew Lira
also admitted that he sought to have sex with five other women, all in
technical training, and striking up unprofessional relationships with
two others.

He will be sentenced Friday.

The recruit,
identified as Airman 1, told the court late in the day she was shocked
when Lira, her basic training instructor, complimented her just before
she joined a medical hold unit.

Until then, he had acted as other instructors, yelling and correcting her and fellow recruits in an all-female flight.

“'You're too good-looking for him,'” she said Lira told her while looking at a picture of the woman and her ex-boyfriend.

Airman
1 said Lira saw her off to the 319th Training Squadron, kissing her in
his flight office before she boarded a bus. The squadron is a medical
hold unit.

Prosecutors charged him with having unprofessional
relationships, adultery and two counts of obstructing justice. Lira
could get a year in jail and a bad-conduct discharge.

His case is the 23rd sexual misconduct court-martial at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in the past 14 months.

The judge in his case, Col. Donald Eller
Jr., will hand down a verdict and sentence in the second trial he has
overseen this week. He gave another former instructor, Senior Airman Christopher Oliver, two years in prison and a dishonorable discharge Wednesday.

06/26/2013

A military judge Wednesday found an Air Force instructor guilty of
having sex with a recruit he was charged with training, but ruled that
Senior Airman Christopher Oliver did not use force — sparing him a possible life sentence.

Reading a lengthy list of charges, Col. Donald Eller
found Oliver not guilty of forcible sodomy, aggravated sexual assault
and aggravated sexual contact, as well as obstructing justice. But he
decided Oliver was guilty of consensual sodomy and wrongful sexual
contact, offenses that carried far lighter sentences.

Oliver could get more than 23 years in prison on the charges, plus
two lesser charges and six specifications that he pleaded guilty to on
Monday. But judges and juries typically have given lighter sentences in a
scandal that has ensnared 33 instructors at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland who've fallen under investigation for illicit relationships with 67 recruits and technical school trainees.

Standing at attention, Oliver faced the judge as the verdict was
handed down while his family sat a few feet behind him, their faces
grim.

When the judge asked questions, Oliver replied in a voice barely above a whisper.

While Eller threw out charges that could have resulted in a much
longer prison sentence, Oliver still could be branded a sex offender
after being found guilty of wrongful sexual contact.

Prosecutors had worked to convince Col. Donald Eller Jr. that Oliver
used his position and authority to force a recruit to have sexual
contact with him up to a dozen times through most of basic training.

Senior Airman Christopher Oliver
was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison and given a dishonorable
discharge after he was convicted of sexual misconduct charges at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.

The sentence was hard fall for Oliver, a former elite training
instructor, who was busted to the lowest rank, but it could have been
worse.

The judge, Col. Donald Eller Jr., found him not guilty of charges that could have landed him in prison for life.

Standing before Eller and his family, Oliver tearfully apologized.

“I just pray and humbly ask that you see that is not the person I really am,” he told the judge.

Oliver was the latest airman caught up in a scandal that's ensnared
33 Lackland instructors who have come under scrutiny for illicit
relationships with 67 recruits and tech school trainees.

He faced a lengthy charge sheet, but Eller found him not guilty of
the most serious offenses — forcible sodomy, aggravated sexual assault
and aggravated sexual contact, as well as obstructing justice.

Eller convicted him of consensual sodomy and wrongful sexual contact,
as well as adultery, dereliction of duty and having unprofessional
relationships. He may be listed as a sex offender because of the sexual
contact conviction.

Prosecutors argued that Oliver used his position and authority to
force a recruit identified as Airman 3 to have sexual contact with him
up to a dozen times through most of basic training.

The defense said their client, who had pleaded guilty to lesser
charges, only engaged in consensual sexual relations. Airman 3 said she
was assaulted.

The fear she had, Capt. Christopher Lanks told the judge, was grounded in a conversation with her father, an Army veteran who shared tips on surviving basic training.

“She was scared people would find out what was going on because her dad said the Air Force is a small world,” Lanks said.

The spotlight fell as much on Airman 3 as it did Oliver. Another defense attorney, Capt. Patrick Colaw, said she freely engaged in sex and described her as feeling “ashamed, embarrassed, disappointed, regretful.”

06/25/2013

Air Force instructor Christopher Oliver
arranged to meet an airman on a Sunday morning after the all-female
flight filed out of a dormitory on Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland to go
to church.

Praying wasn't part of the plan.

Oliver took one
last look around the dorm, making sure no one else was there, before he
closed and locked the door to an office that bisected two bays.

“He
stated that if anyone found out he could be in a lot of trouble,” said a
woman identified as Airman 2, who testified Tuesday in Oliver's
court-martial that they had a quick sexual encounter.

One of 33
instructors who've fallen under investigation for illicit activities
with 67 recruits and technical school trainees in the Air Force's
biggest sex scandal, Oliver is charged with aggravated sexual assault,
two specifications of aggravated sexual contact, and forcible
sodomy.Prosecutors said Oliver knew what to do when Airman 2 asked how
they would get together to have sex in the middle of basic training, a
time when it is difficult to be alone.

The
defense didn't challenge Airman 2 as she recounted her encounter with
Oliver in his office or a discussion they had later about having a
ménage á trios with another recruit.

They were to converge on a
hotel between San Antonio and San Angelo. Airman 2 said Oliver sent
photos via text message of recruits he was training, and suggested he
could bring one of the women to the hotel with him.

After she told
him that one of the women stuck her as attractive, Airman 2 said Oliver
expressed confidence that he probably could make things happen.